As previously announced on this blog, I do not watch television nor do I listen to the radio. I stream NetFlix almost exclusively (no commercials) and stream old time radio programs via the Internet if I want to listen to the radio. This post will cover the first and the last legs of my recent trip from Ontario, California to Ogden, Utah.

I left the Ontario International Airport area on the morning of Wednesday, March 28th. A few hours later I was passing the California / Nevada state line in Primm, Nevada. I saw a rather puzzling sight on the east side of the freeway.

As I headed out of the dry lake bed and into Primm, I noticed there were a lot of people–hundreds of people–standing at the south side of the fashion outlet mall. I got closer and realized that there was an order to the madness: The people were standing in a line. My first thought was that some studio had put out a casting call and this is where they were conducting auditions.

If you are not familiar with the location, Primm, Nevada (aka State Line) is the first town you encounter after you leave Baker, California (home of the world’s tallest thermometer) northbound on Interstate 15. It has three casinos, one of which (Buffalo Bill’s) has a high-thrill roller coaster that winds its way through the casino itself. Anyway, the southeast side of Primm has a casino with a huge factory outlet mall.

The mall’s parking lot includes a couple of gas stations, a McDonald’s, a Taco Bell, a Greek Restaurant and a liquor store. The liquor store is the farthest southern point of the whole paved area. Anyway, this place had a line of people coming out the door, circling the building, snaking through the parking lot and continuing inside the doors of the mall. Again, hundreds and hundreds of people were in line. Why? I had no idea, nor did I care. I don’t gamble.

That was Wednesday. I returned from Ogden, Utah on Friday, March 30th and I made the critically bad decision to stop for gas at Primm and maybe grab a bite to eat. Not thinking, I opted for the Texaco station on the southeast side of the freeway by the McDonald’s and the fashion mall. I chose poorly.

Once locked into the parking lot traffic I could not escape. I knew I had made an error in judgment and wanted nothing more than to escape from the traffic nightmare in which I found myself and head to the Chevron on the west side of the interstate. But I couldn’t. I finally made it to Texaco and filled up. I noticed the little liquor store had even more traffic on Friday than it had on Wednesday. The lines were HUGE! Why? Once again, I had no idea nor did I care. I figured what I was seeing was a flood of people returning from their Southern California spring break and for whatever reason, that liquor store was important as the first one in Nevada.

Anyway, when I finally left Primm headed south-bound on the 15 again, I noticed the traffic: bumper-to-bumper. I didn’t see any accidents, highway patrol, chupacabras or armadillos, just traffic. Lots and lots of bumper-to-bumper traffic, all headed north, all exiting at Primm. I passed Zzyzx Road doing the speed limit. The north side was still bumper-to-bumper. In fact, it remained bumper-to-bumper all the way from BEFORE Baker! That’s over 50 miles! Clearly, something was happening.

It was then I decided to remove the boxed set of Sam Spade, Private Detective CDs I’d been listening to since Ogden and tune into the radio. Huh. Apparently, there was some huge half-a-billion dollar plus lottery happening of which I was unaware. The drawing didn’t matter to me at all. As I indicated earlier, I don’t gamble. But I did some research into what the fuss was over that seemingly insignificant liquor store.

I was surprised to learn that the liquor store isn’t really in the mall’s parking lot, it’s across the street. In fact, the liquor store isn’t really in Primm, nor is it in Nevada at all. It’s in a little slice of heaven all by itself with a street address in Nipton, California. Its parking lot is literally on the border between California and Nevada; the street is the physical state border. The “liquor store” is actually a well-known Mega-Millions Lottery retailer in California. The place: Terrible’s Lotto Sales. I hear it’s more like a 7-11 than a liquor store with the focus on California Lottery sales of quick-picks and scratchers. I also understand it’s *THE* place to go if you live in sourthern Nevada and want to play the California lottery.

I read an article from another blogger who said she stood in line for three hours to get her Mega-Millions tickets and that was through the automated machines! The person-to-person quick picks took even longer. Who would do that? Gamblers, apparently. I know next to nothing about the lottery system but it seems to me that if the jackpot is only one million dollars, fewer people play so your odds of winning go up. The higher the jackpot the more players so your odds go down. I think I’d rather play when the lottery is not as loaded as the most-recent game. I know for certain I wouldn’t waste my time driving to Primm if it was only to buy a ticket. I’d take my chances at the local Qwik-E-Mart.